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Work in Progress / Tribal Shrines

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Darth Kiwi
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Posted: 8th Apr 2011 20:36 Edited at: 8th Apr 2011 20:41
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I've been working on this for a few months on and off but I've got enough done to start showing people. So, here is:



As leader of a primitive tribe who live on an island, you must organise the tribe and ensure they have enough resources to survive.


The beginnings of a tribe

As you can see, the game uses an extremely simple graphics style that's almost symbolic.

As well as dealing with the ever-present problem of feeding people, your tribe will be beset by natural disasters: volcanoes will spread magma across the island, crop failures will ruin your farms, tornadoes will sweep across your land and tidal waves will devastate the island's shores.

Your shaman will give you spiritual guidance and tell you how to avoid these disasters by praying at shrines to the Gods of the elements - hence the game's title.


A more advanced tribe

You'll have noticed that there are things in the sea in the above picture. I haven't told trees, deer or characters that the sea exists yet, so at the moment the background image is just decoration. Don't worry, this'll be fixed soon.

Features:

The island's natural resources replenish over time: deer (which you hunt for food) and trees (which you harvest for wood) reproduce, spawning smaller versions of themselves nearby. These young deer and trees will grow to adulthood and spawn more offspring.

Also, the total food and wood which the tribe owns is calculated by adding together how much there is in each storehouse. This means that if a storehouse is destroyed by a natural disaster, the tribe loses the resources that were stored inside.

This probably won't be completed for a few months - I don't have a great deal of free time, unfortunately - but I think it's starting to look and feel like the finished game, so I thought it would be worth posting. Don't expect updates too frequently, but I do intend to get this done eventually.

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kamac
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Posted: 8th Apr 2011 20:48
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Oh well, the gameplay looks cool, making simple graphics is a trend right now... But making TOO BAD graphics just breaks the limits, because it only shows that you are too lazy to make ones . Yet, the gameplay looks nice

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bergice
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Posted: 8th Apr 2011 21:36 Edited at: 8th Apr 2011 21:39
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YES!!! DOWNLOADIGN!!! OOOO OMG


[Edit]

No download?
Oh well, looks fun, i am very fond of survival, style games and stuff, hence the overreacting.

I don't complain about the graphics, they might as well be like that at this point. (Reminds me off Dwarf Fortress) However some colours would be nice. Maybe some very small textures.

Lucy in the

Sky with

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Darth Kiwi
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Posted: 8th Apr 2011 22:43
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Fair point about the graphics. If I get closer to release and feel that the graphics could do with a revamp then I can always redo the images.

Hehe, sorry there's no download up yet bergice Glad you're excited about it, though

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Cian Rice
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Posted: 9th Apr 2011 01:44
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Quote: "Oh well, the gameplay looks cool, making simple graphics is a trend right now... But making TOO BAD graphics just breaks the limits, because it only shows that you are too lazy to make ones . Yet, the gameplay looks nice "


It doesn't show that he's too lazy to make "ones". Perhaps Darth Kiwi isn't an artist (I honestly don't know). Even if he is an artist, he's focusing what he should be focusing on for now - the game itself. And plus, the graphics give the game a very distinct look, and honestly... they aren't that bad.

As for the game itself. It looks and sounds very interesting! Can't wait to try it out. And I'm in the same boat with not having much time to work on games.

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Gil Galvanti
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Posted: 9th Apr 2011 01:48
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Sounds cool, looking forward to trying it out .

Quote: "It doesn't show that he's too lazy to make "ones". Perhaps Darth Kiwi isn't an artist (I honestly don't know). Even if he is an artist, he's focusing what he should be focusing on for now - the game itself. And plus, the graphics give the game a very distinct look, and honestly... they aren't that bad. "

I agree, the graphics are fine. For one, not every game is built with graphics as a focus for the game, and gameplay is more important anyways. Also, graphics require a lot of resources and time to make, so it's often better to prototype with simpler graphics, even if they're not the finished product.


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JLMoondog
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Posted: 9th Apr 2011 03:54
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I'd shoot David an email, he might be interested in building you some graphics. If not I can give it a go. It sounds like Black & White but with no pet and physics. I liked that whole aspect of gameplay of taking care of a civilization that's subjected to doom. Something about holding the fate of NPC's without having direct control always appeal to me in games.

There was an old NES game similar to this too, can't remember the name. I remember spending countless hours playing it though.

Looking forward to a demo.

http://www.jlmoondog.com/
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Ashingda 27
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Posted: 10th Apr 2011 03:11
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This looks interesting. It seems that the animals are on what seems to be water?

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Darth Kiwi
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Posted: 11th Apr 2011 17:50
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Quote: "It doesn't show that he's too lazy to make "ones". Perhaps Darth Kiwi isn't an artist (I honestly don't know). Even if he is an artist, he's focusing what he should be focusing on for now - the game itself. And plus, the graphics give the game a very distinct look, and honestly... they aren't that bad. "

Yeah, my artistic skills are passable but not great. I can make pixel art given time but it's probably not great, and, as you say, I'd rather focus on the game's systems at the moment.

Quote: "I agree, the graphics are fine. For one, not every game is built with graphics as a focus for the game, and gameplay is more important anyways. Also, graphics require a lot of resources and time to make, so it's often better to prototype with simpler graphics, even if they're not the finished product."

Exactly! The game's focus is really on the player's experience. Graphics are a part of that, of course, but they're not the most important.

Quote: "I'd shoot David an email, he might be interested in building you some graphics. If not I can give it a go."

Thanks for the suggestion, I might do that when I'm nearer to completion. At the moment I don't want to request graphics since I'm still not totally sure what will or will not be in the game.

Quote: "It sounds like Black & White but with no pet and physics. I liked that whole aspect of gameplay of taking care of a civilization that's subjected to doom. Something about holding the fate of NPC's without having direct control always appeal to me in games."


Yes, I always thought it was rather pleasing seeing your city churning away productively without you having to micromanage everything Trying to click on one particular villager would be a real pain, and isn't really necessary when you think about it. And yes, there's definitely a Black and White vibe to this, although I'd say it has more influence from Age of Empires 1: I found it kind of fun just hunting gazelle and foraging for food and quietly building more buildings, and the combat didn't really feel necessary.

Quote: "This looks interesting. It seems that the animals are on what seems to be water?"

They are, but that's now fixed!



I've also put in some buttons to speed up time. They work most of the time, but sometimes people get stuck I'm not sure why...

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JLMoondog
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Posted: 11th Apr 2011 23:06 Edited at: 11th Apr 2011 23:06
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Any chance of being able to draw your own island? Or is it random..or premade?

What's the difference between the different colored humans?

And from the look of it it seems you can build farms, barns and houses? Curious as to what else you can build.

I'm also a big fan of Age of Empires, some of the best parts were just building up your town from a few humans to a large community. Ah, reminds me, any chance we'll be able to do some fishing?

http://www.jlmoondog.com/
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DarkByNight
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Posted: 12th Apr 2011 06:56
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I am a huge fan of Age of empires (All the games) and black and white, and this looks and sounds to be kind of a mixture.
Can't see what you cook up!
I personally like the graphics, they're simple yet to the point. (However, upgrading them when you feel it's time, might be good. )
Great job so far and keep up the fantastic work!
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Darth Kiwi
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Posted: 14th Apr 2011 01:03
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At the moment the island is pre-drawn. I suppose a system could be put in place where you'd draw your own island, but I don't want to spend too much time mucking around with the villager AI and if the island is a weird shape then they might end up walking over water

The blue people are regular villagers, and the green one is your avatar, the tribe leader. The green one with a shepherd's crook is your shaman; he'll give you advice throughout the game.

And yes, there are houses (which allow you to house more people), farms (to farm for food, obviously) and storehouses where you put resources. The only other buildings I have planned are the shrines, but I think I'd like to allow the player to upgrade them; you could start with a small shrine and eventually upgrade to an enormous pyramid or something.

As for fishing, well, I really wanted to include it but at the moment I think hunting and farming provide enough variety. Hunting depletes the number of deer on the island and it takes longer to carry the food back to a storehouse, but is almost always available if food is needed and farms can't be built. Farms are more reliable and efficient, but can be destroyed by natural disasters and, if the crops fail, will be suddenly rendered useless. I think introducing fishing would complicate a game system which, at the moment, seems to work surprisingly well.

Quote: "I am a huge fan of Age of empires (All the games) and black and white, and this looks and sounds to be kind of a mixture.
Can't see what you cook up!
I personally like the graphics, they're simple yet to the point. (However, upgrading them when you feel it's time, might be good. )
Great job so far and keep up the fantastic work! "

Thanks! I do kind of like the graphics, plus they mean I can make the gameplay a little unrealistic (like with people stacking on top of each other in one square) without breaking the player's suspension of disbelief. But I'll see how it goes; nicer graphics would probably make the experience better.

Just to let you all know, I'm going to be away from the internet (gasp!) for about a week and a half so won't be able to respond to anything you post in that time or work on the game. Sorry! But hopefully I'll put up some new screenshots when I get back.

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Oneka
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Posted: 14th Apr 2011 04:53
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Not to bite off of you or anything but your kinda inspiring me to possibly make a game similar to this one as I am a fan of civilization building type games


Making dreams possible, one line at a time...
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Darth Kiwi
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Posted: 13th May 2011 12:03 Edited at: 13th May 2011 12:06
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Sorry for not posting here for a while; I've been really busy with university work and haven't really made much progress, which is annoying.

Here's a picture of a volcanic eruption devastating the island, though:



On the south side of the island you can also see a stage-two temple, with the option to upgrade to a stage-three temple on the HUD bar below that. I've not got this working perfectly yet - later-stage temples are, I hope, going to be large Mayan pyramids, so I'll probably have to implement some collision for those - but it's something I've got bookmarked for later.

I have two weeks of intense revision (eek!) then one week of exams, but after that I should be able to get this thing moving again.

@Oneka: Go for it! Glad to hear this has inspired someone

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Cybermind
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Posted: 14th May 2011 20:07
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Look awesome

The byte chrunchers are coming...
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Penfold
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Posted: 14th May 2011 20:50
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looks really good keep it up , it looks a lot like a cross between meglomania and populous one although there are some definite aspects of populous 3 (in the beggining) in there. Cant wait to have a go !!

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nackidno
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Posted: 16th May 2011 21:45
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The lava pig attacks the island, everyone hide in your huts and pray!

Looks really good, when can we expect a video, or maybe a demo?

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Darth Kiwi
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Posted: 17th May 2011 01:12
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I'm not sure. I have exams in a few weeks, but after that I'll have about a fortnight of downtime, so hopefully I'll be able to make progress then. I can't really promise a release date, though, because my working on it is so haphazard at the moment due to revision.

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tha_rami
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Posted: 23rd May 2011 12:09
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Definitely do not change the graphics. They are absolutely perfect for the game as you describe it, almost looking like some sort of prehistoric cave drawing on black. If you'd give everything small animations, I think it'd look stunning. There's a huge difference between having 'teh graphics' and 'aesthetics'. If you're the same Darth Kiwi I know, you should be aiming for the latter and if you ask me, you succeeded. Sure, it needs some tweaking, but the general style is consistent and fits the design & premise.

Honestly, if you're to change anything, it should be the interface because at this point, that looks kind of busy and textual.

Business guy and developer at [url]www.vlambeer.com[/url] - bringing back arcade since 1956.
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McLaine
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Posted: 23rd May 2011 13:04
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REminds me of a game called 'Kingdom' on the BBC micro which was done with teletext graphics!

It's not my fault!
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